Archives and Recordkeeping: Theory into Practice

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add to the online archive? No chapter really explored the role of diversity within a changing environment of technology and online access. Jeffrey Mifﬂin’s ‘Regarding Indigenous Knowledge in Archives’ discusses the use of technology to allow greater control of access to sensitive cultural material, however there are more questions to be addressed as we refocus our profession towards how technology is changing society and its relationship to records.

In contrast, the discussion of community engagement with archives is more thorough. All contributors advocated for archivists to develop trusted relationships with a broader range of record creators. A number of contributors encouraged archivists to consider what the written record means to diverse communities, especially in cases where ofﬁcial records have been used to persecute or to reinforce exclusion of individu- als or particular groups of people. The role of oral communication, languages other than English, and how archivists might capture a broader range of record, is discussed by several contributors. T-Kay Sangwand’s chapter ‘Revolutionizing the Archival Record Through Rap’pushes the theoretical content with a discussion on the role of incorporat- ing ‘intangible records’such as performance into archives. Engaging with stakeholders can be challenging for a profession that might see itself as neutral, objective or passive.

Through the Archival Looking Glass gives practical advice on how to embark on an inclusion project, whether the archivist is a member of a community group or an outsider.

Caldera and Neal have compiled a highly readable collection of essays. Contributors express a refreshing passion for the ongoing development of archival theory and practice. Often very personal in their accounts as to why diversity and inclusion is important, the contributors demonstrate a high level of intellectual rigour and a focus on practical and considered application of diversity programs. With a focus on providing practical advice, the authors have been open in their acknowledgment of mistakes of the past and the complexities that still exist. Through the Archival Looking Glass promotes understanding and encourages a broad dialogue. While written from a North American perspective, the book is inclusive of international experiences, and would be very useful in informing the debate in Australia on how we address inclusion.

Jennifer Jerome LINC Tasmania

Caroline Brown (ed.), Archives and Recordkeeping: Theory into Practice, Facet Publishing, London, 2014. xxiii + 260 pp. ISBN 978 1 856048 25 5. GBP£49.95.

I was asked to review this book shortly after holding forth at a staff meeting on the importance of our practice being informed by a sound grasp of theory–so, for my sins, I could not say no and turned to this book with great interest.

As the title implies, this book aims to present practitioners with an overview of archival and recordkeeping theory, explaining its relevance to what we do. Edited by Caroline Brown, the book comprises seven chapters:

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Records and Archives: Concepts, Roles and Deﬁnitions (Caroline Williams);

Archival Appraisal: Practising on Shifting Sands (Anne J Gilliland);

Arrangement and Description: Between Theory and Practice (Jennifer Meehan);

Ethics for Archivists and Records Managers (Jeanette A Bastian);

Archives, Memories and Identities (Eric Ketelaar);

Under the Inﬂuence: The Impact of Philosophy on Archives and Records Management (Rachel Hardiman);

Participation vs Principle: Does Technological Change Marginalise Recordkeeping Theory (Alan R Bell).

In the space allowed for a review, it is hard to do justice to the breadth and depth offered by this book. Overall, the chapters provide erudite yet accessible overviews of many areas of archival and recordkeeping theory and bring a good coverage of (largely) Anglophone approaches. Brown’s introduction helpfully argues not just why theory matters, but explains what theory is.

The authors of the ﬁrst three chapters all successfully cover the history of our work through to present times. I would recommend Williams’s chapter on concepts as essen- tial reading for anyone interested in exploring this messy and contested domain. She elegantly explores many approaches to these terms and, in particular, I appreciated this introduction to Yeo’s discussions of records as prototypes and boundary objects.

Gilliland’s appraisal chapter provides a useful introduction to the varied and contin- gent appraisal practices used within the profession, highlighting a number of trends and emerging challenges. She asks whether appraisal was an ‘idea of its time’ and challenges us to question whether it is still relevant.

Meehan provides a competent and thorough overview of approaches to arrangement and description, positing them in a useful discussion of institutional contexts. While the challenge of digital is touched upon, I would have liked this to be covered in more depth.

For me, Bastian’s chapter was one of the weakest in the book, not achieving the depth of many of the others. It covers the interplay of ethical behaviours, public trust and accountability but I would have enjoyed a greater exploration of the types of ethical issues that arise. It is also marred by a glaring (to an Australian reader) error where Bastian cites the Heiner Affair as an example of an archivist-turned-whistleblower on serious government malfeasance who ‘suffered the consequences by losing his job’

(p. 10).

The final three chapters alone make this book worth purchasing. Ketelaar’s chapter is an elegant and compelling articulation of how archives contribute to the shaping of memory and identity, firmly grounded in a grasp of the literature. Hardiman ably rises to the challenges of making the philosophical underpinning of current thought not only accessible, but relevant to the trends in our own profession. Though I turned to this chapter with some trepidation, it provided a headyflow of ideas which I read with plea- sure. Bell closes the book with a somewhat uplifting articulation of what recordkeeping has to offer in a world of technological change (and no, it is far more meaningful than just‘control’and‘evidence’).

My key criticism of this book is its minimal and fragmentary coverage of access.

While access is acknowledged in the arrangement and description chapter, among others, and is at the heart of the discussion on archives, memories and identities, it is disappointing that the topic of access was not a stand-alone chapter.

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Overall, the book is an excellent introduction to the many and varied strands of thought in recordkeeping. The thorough bibliographies provided by all authors will enable the reader to go on their own journey of discovery.

Rowena Loo Queensland State Archives

Tanya Zanish-Belcher with Anke Voss (eds), Perspectives on Women’s Archives, Society of American Archivists, Chicago, 2013. 488 pp. ISBN 978 1 931666 67 1 (epub), 978 1 931666 66 4 (pdf), 1 931666 47 4 (print). USD$69.95, member price USD$49.95.

Links to Society of American Archivists publications page for this book:

<http://saa.archivists.org/store/perspectives-on-womens-archives/3334/>,

<http://saa.archivists.org/4DCGI/store/PDFs/TOCs/BOOKSAA-0588.pdf>.

Perspectives on Women’s Archivesis a book that anyone serious about archives, not just women’s archives, should read. It provides a comprehensive overview of how, for over ﬁve decades, committed archivists applying their professional knowledge and working with other stakeholders have created the category ‘women’s archives’ in the United States. Taking the history from below movement and the search for sources on women in the 1970s as its starting point, it makes a strong case for the sometimes disputed view that archivists and archives beneﬁt from a close connection with historians. This book may not appeal to those who dismiss the need for archivists to be content experts or who think that access is primarily about providing online descriptions of holdings or digitising collections. On the other hand, if you are curious about archives relating to black women’s history, lesbian archives, the archives of women’s religious activities, the role of regional collections or zines in archives, among other things, then this book has something to offer you.

This book is a reader in the Society of American Archivists tradition. It is authorita- tive and informative. It admirably combines classics with newly commissioned pieces, and it encompasses discussions of theory and individual institutional practice as well as empirical surveys of women’s archives. There are four sections: Reclaiming our Past;

Locating Women in the Archives; Documenting Women’s Experiences; and, Conclusion.

The reader starts and concludes with pieces by the historian Gerda Lerner, theﬁrst pub- lished in 1975 and the second in 2009. In the latter, Lerner notes that, despite the many achievements in the ﬁeld of women’s archives, much remains to be done to document and interpret the lives of American women, notably rural women, women from ethnic immigrant groups, working-class women and women in unpaid work (p. 425). Many of the other contributions demonstrate how archivists are continuing to strive to ensure that the records of the experience of American women are collected, documented and used.

One of the threads running through the book is whether ‘women’s archives’should be treated as a separate category, including whether they should be housed and man- aged as discrete collections. In chapter 7, ‘A Room of One’s Own: Women’s Archives in the Year 2000’, Kären M Mason and Tanya Zanish-Belcher, having presented a Reviews 85